Heretofore, it has been well known to provide orthodontic brackets having multiple archwire slots for receiving archwires and particularly archwire slots that are open for receiving rectangular archwires for the use in treating patients with the edgewise technique and slots for receiving archwires in the treatment of patients during the Begg or light wire technique, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,196,516.
It has also been well known to provide orthodontic brackets having means for accommodating crown tipping, root uprighting, and torquing functions, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,877,398 and 5,125,832. Brackets of this type are viewed as having a Tip Edge® slot for practicing the Tip Edge® technique. Tip Edge® is a registered trademark owned by TP Orthodontics, Inc. of Westville, Ind. While the brackets in these patents have been designed for using round or rectangular wire, they particularly perform torquing functions with rectangular wire and allow the movement of teeth along the archwire and the arch.
Further, the brackets disclosed in the above patents include vertically extending slots or openings for receiving the tails of uprighting springs to perform a root uprighting function where desired. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,514 discloses a type of uprighting spring that may be used with brackets having vertical openings.
It has also been known to provide an orthodontic bracket having a pair of contiguous labiobuccally opening archwire slots, one of which allows tipping and uprighting movement, and the other of which provides torquing movement, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,512. It has also been known to provide a bracket having a pair of contiguous archwire slots which allows crown tipping, limits root uprighting, and controls torquing, while the other slots functions to stabilize tooth movement in three dimensions as sold by TP Orthodontics, Inc. of Westville, Ind., and illustrated in TP's 1998 product catalog on page 32.
Moreover, it has been known to provide an orthodontic bracket including a main archwire slot that allows crown tipping, root uprighting, and torquing functions, and additionally a lumen or tunnel which produces a final uprighting function with the use of a highly flexible archwire without the use of individual uprighting springs, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,345.